A/N: Here is the next chapter. That's all. For once I don't have a paragraph as a author's note, shocking I know. Enjoy.
EDIT: I know, I was doing so good. I have to mention that I, in no way, own HTTYD, and I am only using it's characters for the entertainment of others.
Astrid POV:
It didn't happen instantly, the aforementioned snap that is, as the word would imply. To clarify, it was the moment the dam broke, the one holding his anger inside, not the moment he made his move though. That took a minute.
The first hint that any observant person (read: everyone excluding Scott) had that Hiccup was past the breaking point was his shoulders. He had always kinda slouched down, making himself smaller than he was, probably a mechanism that he used to avoid attention. That, was no longer the case. His thin shoulders bunched up the second the words left Scott's mouth, squaring with a confidence that honestly looked foriegn on him. There were no more tears falling.
He slowly raised his head, dropping the circuit boards to the ground between his knees. One of his most notable features, to me at least, was his hair. His hair had always been slightly longer than the average boy's, always just brushing against his shoulders and bangs unruly, appearing wild and untambed, but always staying out of his face and showing his emerald eyes. His bangs did no such favors now, hanging down in front of his eyes, casting them in an all consuming darkness that I almost got lost in/ The tear streaks were still prominent on his face, sticking out against the contrasting pale skin and freckles.
Scott still had that stupid, overly cocky smirk on his face when Hiccup reached up, grasped his nose, and pulled the poor kid'sface onto Hiccup awaiting knee, which he had somehow managed to stick up in perfect time to meet Scott's face. The resulting crack made everyone in the, now rapidly growing, audience visibly cringe. The force of the blow made Scott fall backwards onto his (if i'm completely honest) frankly unimpressive ass, his hand covering his face, yelling obscenities from behind his face with a noticeably higher voice, about an octave or so.
Hiccup payed no attention to the shit streaming from Scott's mouth as he slowly raised himself to a standing position. He was tall. Inappropriate time to notice this small little fact I know, but I'd never really noticed until now. He was always on the ground (pushed down by Scott), or asleep at his desk, or cowering, but now, he was none of those things… he was, confident. I felt another twinge of sympathy deep within me, this time though, it wasn't for Hiccup. I realized with a small start that I was feeling sympathy for Scott and, like I did for Hiccup so many times before, I kept my peace and kept quite.
A hollow voice speaks up, breaking the spell of silence that had befallen the audience. "What the fuck did I tell you You Self ABSORBED PIECE OF ABSOLUTE SHIT," the scream tearing tearing itself from Hiccup's throat making everyone in the crowd, including me, back up a step. "YOU COULDN'T SEE PAST YOUR OWN EGO FOR ONE GODDAMN FUCKING MINUTE TO REALIZE THAT THERE ARE SOME THINGS THAT YOU SHOULD JUST LEAVE ALONE, BUT NO, YOU HAD TO OPEN YOUR STUPID FUCKING MOUTH AND SPEW MORE PIPING HOT SHIT INTO THE WORLD THAN YOU ALREADY HAVE, DIDN'T YOU…. LOOK AT ME WHEN I TALK TO YOU YOU COWARDLY PIECE OF GARBAGE." Hiccup shouted before moving to force Scott's hands from his face.
Scott's face, looking back on it, was one of the funniest things I had ever seen, solely thanks to the fact that, for once, he didn't look cocky or smug. He looked like… well, he looked like Hiccup, and suddenly I'm hit with the pure hilarity of the situation in front of me. The rules of interaction between the two, established a million times over, have been reversed, broken for a few moments, a few glorious moments. Something that everyone at the school needed to see, their idol broken, the gold paint gone and the pyrite underneath revealed. This confrontation was like seeing Hades and Zeus fight, you know who you should cheer for (Zeus aka Scott), but you want to cheer for Hades.
Hiccup, along with some of the rest of the student body, most of the ones who can see his face, began chuckling. His face, always kinda superman like in nature, had four trails running down it. The two tear trails mirroring the ones on his cousin's face, and two snot trails, running down and over his chin. I know it was an involuntary reaction to having your nose pulled, but still, wouldn't you pay anything to see Zeus look like a pathetic crying child? My point exactly.
Scott decides, that instead of staying on the ground quietly, escaping with his dignity, he would try to recover in literally the worst way possible, with his words. "You… you… you can't laugh….. you were crying first." Comeback of the ages, I know.
"At least I don't look like a child who doesn't know how to use a fucking tissue. You have enough snot leaving your nose to cover everyone's colds for the rest of the year. Ya fucking lout, was that the best that you could come up with 'you cried first'." came the increasingly snarky and condescending reply. "Please then, grace us with more of your wise wit oh king..." he took a second to think of what to say next, "Snotlout. That actually seems appropriate, Snotlout. Let's see how you like your new nickname."
Hiccup, always the smart one, was about to pull away when Snotlo… I mean Scott (sorry Snotlout does kinda fit him) decided to finally make an intelligent decision and use his brute force, literally his only advantage he has on his cousin. He pushed up with left arm, ramming his right arm directly into Hiccup's diaphragm knocking the breath out of him and giving Scott time to recover.
They stood, alone in the circle, surrounded by their peers, glaring each other down. In the back of my mind I vaguely hear the bell ring, but the tension in the air muffles it out. I count exactly five seconds of peace. Five long, tension and anger filled seconds where no one dares to even breathe. Then, they collide. Scott charges across the floor, attempting to tackle the opposing youth and end the embarrassing brawl without further incident. Sadly, he wasn't that lucky. Hiccup, at the last second, side steps and brings his elbow down in the center of Scott's back as he charges past, sending the football captain sliding on the linoleum tile flooring that makes up the base of the school.
"Charges like the animal he can most relate to, the bull without the testicles." Shouts Hiccup, earning a few more well deserved chuckles before Scott stands back up and faced him again. Scott tries to advance once again, much more cautiously this time, stopping just out of reach before shooting forward to punch Hiccup in the jaw. The willowy youth falls to the ground with a thud, just barely rolling out of the way of Scott's follow up attack, using the momentum to kick Scott's left leg out from under him, once again leveling the battlefield. They both give each other time to get back up, this time eyeing each other up and down, assessing the damage that has already been dealt. Hiccup has a steady stream of blood coming from his lip and a surprisingly nasty looking cut right below his right eye, neither of which seem to be bothering the youth. Snotlout, the name seems really fitting right now considering the snot is still streaming out of his nasal cavity, is looking slightly better off. There is already a bruise forming where his chin connected with Hiccup's knee and he seems to be favoring his right leg. Snotlout swings with a sloppy right hook, putting too much weight on his hurt leg, causing him to pitch forward, missing Hiccup entirely, and falling on his hands and knees at his smaller cousin's feet, a cousin who, without hesitation, kicks his hands out from under him making him fall flat on his face, resulting in another resounding crack. He falls on his side holding his now quite broken nose and Hiccup, clearly the victor, turns on his heels and begins to leave the scene of the fight before Snotlout, ever needing to have the last word, shouts at Hiccup's back, "You call that a fight, no wonder your dad doesn't love you, and your mother ran away. You're not a man Henrik, you're a hiccup, a little annoyance in everyday life. If you're not gonna come back and finish what you fucking started, then don't come back at all. Just go kill yourself and do everyone else the favor," he shouted, throwing what little respect I had left for him away, in fact, I'm actually horrified behind the venom in the words.
Hiccup stops for a second at the mention of his parents, but then proceeds to walk through the crowd with little more than a backwards glance and middle finger for good measure, before walking right into the awaiting arms of principal Mildew who then promptly orders both of them into his office at once and grabs Hiccup by the scruff of his neck and drags him through the crowd and out of sight.
After starring in the general direction for a short amount of time, I reluctantly realize that I need to go help and comfort my "perfect" boyfriend, Snotlout.
Holy shit sorry about the long update wait. There was horrible flooding throughout my hometown last Thursday and I have been working tirelessly to help with the cleanup effort, yesterday putting well over 8 hours into volunteering with clean up crews. By the time I got home, I was to tired to finish up and post. I just got home from work, thereby permiting me to put the finshing touches on it. Because of the heave damage, my updates will probably be kind of erratic for the next week or so. I might also set up an actual update schedule! Yay.
Anyway I hope that you liked this chapter. Any questions comments or concerns please leave in the reviews and I'll try to get the next chapter up as soon as possible. See you all next time.
May 29, 2016